History
Back in 1999, the Cardiff-based television production company Presentable approached Channel 4 with the idea of producing a series in the form of a poker tournament. At the time, poker had never been shown on UK TV. Channel 4 commissioned the series and Late Night Poker was born.
The first series aired in July 1999 and very quickly built a cult audience. Viewers were captivated by the dark, smoky, intimate studio atmosphere and the quirky characters of the professional poker players sat around the table. The variation of poker they were playing was No Limit Texas Hold'Em, a variation relatively unknown in the UK at the time.
The first series was won by Dave Ulliott who became the UK's first poker celebrity. Other players who became regulars on the series included Series 2 winner, Simon Trumper, Surinder Sunar, Liam Flood, Dave Colclough, Kourosh and the 4 players known collectively as the Hendon Mob, Joe Beevers, Barny Boatman, Ross Boatman and Ram Vaswani.
A celebrity version of the show was produced on 12 October 2000, featuring (in finishing order from 1st to 7th place) Anthony Holden, Al Alvarez, Martin Amis, Victoria Coren, Patrick Marber, Stephen Fry and Ricky Gervais. This led into the creation of spin-off series Celebrity Poker Club on Challenge in 2003.
Late Night Poker ran for six series from 1999 until 2002. A couple of spin-off series, Late Night Poker Ace and Late Night Poker Masters were aired between 2005 and 2007. In 2008, Late Night Poker returned for its 7th series and has continued annually until 2011.
Read more about this topic: Late Night Poker
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